September 26, 2010
Day 2 - Nauders to Prad: Into the Blue
I would be lying if I said the weather looked any different today than it did yesterday. The clouds were thick milky masses hanging threateningly close to the valley floor. We cycled to the bus station in a light drizzle. Four additional cyclists were waiting for the bus to ride up the 500 meters to Nauders and we hoped there would be room for all of us. The bus arrived with a trailer that would have been able to transport many more, thirty maybe.
We reached Nauders after a one-and-a-half-hour bus ride, snow-capped mountains to either side. That was an easy 500 meters with our bikes. Gaining altitude also meant losing degrees on the thermometer and we put on our parkas and gloves. The bike route climbed another 100 meters, a gentle climb but enough to warm us up, to the Austrian-Italian border. A blue patch of sky lay ahead in the cleavage of the mountains, luring us on, southward, to Italy. And the blue patch of sky grew and we rode into the blue hole.
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We reached Reschen Pass and then Reschen Lake, a reservoir created in 1949 by damming three existing lakes. In doing so several hamlets were flooded. A single church steeple remained standing to raise its accusing finger from the depths of the lake, admonishing not to forget that once a village existed here, centuries old. Generations walked the streets that are now drowned and forgotten.
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2 years ago
Unverhofft, one succinct word in German that described the day. It's more than surprising or unexpected, it's 'unhoped', 'not hopeable', something you hadn't dared hope for. Was it the beauty of the valley or the magnificent weather that we hadn't even dared hope for that made this day one of the most beautiful bicycle rides that I could remember?
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The bicycle path descended and we rolled. A north wind blew us toward our destination, where ever that was for the day. Our progress was only hindered by our excessive stops to take pictures. We finished the day in Prad and took a room in Gasthof Neue Post.
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